Ohio Music Education Association

Advocacy

This section is being updated with new advocacy links and information. Please check back frequently to see what new items have been added to help you to advocate for your music program!

Music For All

Music for All is committed to providing access to valuable information and resources to support music and the arts in education and communities. The website contains tools and resources that can equip you with templates, facts and figures, posters and stories to successfully make your case for music education in your school and community. Be sure to visit the Stories & Articles page for moving stories about music's incredible impact.Visit Website

Grassroots Advocacy Guide

As a parent, a community member or business owner, your voice must be heard to influence school budget and curriculum decisions to assure all children have access to music education. This website helps parents and community members influence support for music education in schools. It will guide you in communicating with school board members and administrators, who are the decision makers for every local district and who are influenced by the interests of the local population. It will also guide you to activities and resources for music education advocacy on state and federal levels as part of national music education advocacy efforts.

Advocating for music education is not complicated; the information provided on this website can get you started, and there are tools to help your efforts – press release templates, meeting presentations, sample advocacy letters and more. Adapt the materials to your local situation and use them in your day-to-day efforts. Become a music advocate today and help ensure a high-quality education for all children.Visit Website

Take Action (NAfME)

In school districts nationwide, music education programs are being reduced or eliminated altogether. At the same time, we know that music education programs in schools offer a multitude of invaluable benefits for students ranging from collaboration and communication skills, creativity, self-expression, and leadership to improved academic outcomes.

Teaching music in classrooms is essential if we want to truly offer a world-class education to our students.

NAfME advocates at the national, state, and local levels to educate elected officials and other decision makers about the impact and importance of music education programs. By working together, we are changing the national conversation about music’s role in delivering an outstanding education to all students. Visit Website

Broader Minded

Music not only impacts academic achievement, it also shapes the way our students understand themselves and the world around them. Let's think beyond the bubbles™ and educate the whole student.Visit Website

Music In Our Schools Month

Music In Our Schools Month® or “MIOSM” is NAfME’s annual celebration during March which engages music educators, students, and communities from around the country in promoting the benefits of high quality music education programs in schools.

Music In Our Schools Month® began as a single statewide Advocacy Day and celebration in New York in 1973 and grew over the decades to become a month-long celebration of school music in 1985.

Music teachers celebrate MIOSM in many ways by offering special performances, lessons, sing-alongs and activities to bring their music programs to the attention of administrators, parents, colleagues, and communities to display the positive benefits that school music brings to students of all ages.

NAfME provides many special resources for teachers and schools to use in their concerts, lessons, and advocacy events that highlight the importance of school music.Visit Website

Music Parents’ Guide

Have you ever been (or are you about to be?) confronted with the task of supporting your child’s interest in a musical instrument, when you have little or no musical experience yourself? It can seem a little intimidating. But it doesn’t have to be.

Helping your child with math and English class assignments is pretty straightforward. Why? Because you’ve been through those classes yourself—so you have a strong frame of reference for that.

But what do you do if you’ve never played an instrument, and your child comes home from music class with an interest in learning the guitar, the drums, the piano…or the trombone?!